FALL RIVER — A 56-year-old Fall River man told police he arrived home Tuesday afternoon when three men, one armed with a handgun, barged into his apartment and robbed him of his Percocet pills.

About a month earlier, on Feb. 18, police allege that Donnell C. Blocker, 26, of 97 Park St., walked into Standard Pharmacy, pointed a replica revolver at a pharmacist and demanded “Perc 30s” — Percocet tablets — from the pharmacy. The clerk complied with his demand, and the suspect fled the store. Police subsequently arrested Booker.

Fall River uniform patrol officers and narcotics detectives frequently encounter street-level crime that is related one way or another to the black market of opiate prescription pills such as Percocet and Oxycontin.

“Given the problems we have here in Fall River, I’m surprised that we don’t see more robberies of drugstores here,” said state Rep. Alan Silvia.

The pills hit the streets in various ways. Criminals steal them from drugstores or houses they break into. Some physicians over-prescribe, and those extra pills find their way to the streets. Drug dealers have also been known to gather large quantities of Percocets and Oxycontin from “pill mills,” which are doctors’ offices, clinics and health care facilities in some states, such as Florida, that dispense controlled substances outside the scope of standard medical practices.

Opioid painkillers also fuel street-level sales of heroin. When people addicted to painkillers see their prescriptions expire, some of them seek out heroin because it is cheaper and carries the same high. However, heroin is more dangerous because it is often laced with cutting agents such as Fentanyl, a potent opioid that officials believe is responsible for a spike in overdoses across the state.

“You’ll see a spike in heroin abuse because people are going to their physicians, and they’re saying, ‘No more painkillers,’” Fall River Emergency Medical Services Director John Duclos said.

“Well, they still have that hunger. How do they take care of it?” Duclos added. “They start buying narcotics. It’s a vicious cycle out there.”

Some addicts also sell drugs themselves or rob to obtain cash to support their habit. Earlier this month, Fall River police officers arrested Clifford Cardoso, 32, on charges that he robbed a Robeson Street convenience store at knifepoint last month. A witness told police that Cardoso was a heroin addict who had recently relapsed and was resorting to armed robbery to support his habit, according to court records.

A 39-year-old New Bedford man who uses out-patient services at SSTAR recently spoke to The Herald News about how a Percocet prescription led to him buying heroin on the street. The man requested anonymity because of the stigma of drug use. He said his doctor subscribed him Percocets after he was injured in a motorcycle accident. The doctor discontinued his prescription when a urine sample tested positive for cocaine. He said he started buying Percocets on the street, and then heroin.

Page 2 of 2 - “This one had me hooked,” he said about heroin. His drug habit grew to the point that he lost an auto detailing business. He then started selling heroin to support his habit. He went to detox, and said he has been clean for two weeks.

“I think I hit rock bottom with myself,” he said. “My morals and character hit rock bottom. I lost all that.”